His Betrayal Her Lies (21 page)

Taylor was different from any woman he had
ever been with and it wasn’t just because she was funny and
successful. She didn’t try to label their relationship. She gave
him space when he didn’t even ask for it. Taylor was like a female
version of himself.

The elevator opened outside his loft. He
didn’t have to move toward the door because he had given Taylor an
elevator key. Ephraim didn’t even have a key to his place, yet here
he was giving the key to his heart to a woman. Taylor pulled open
the steel door. Kalon stayed seated on his couch, flipping through
the cable channels. He had to stand his ground with her, no matter
how sexy she looked.

Taylor sat next to him. When she moved
closer, he wondered if it was because she could tell he was upset
with her.

Kalon turned toward her. “So is this what you
do? Go AWOL for a few days and then show up thinking everything is
okay?”

“Nope, babe. I told you I was busy.”

Kalon walked over to the mini bar to pour
another drink. “So you were busy for a whole week?”

Taylor crossed the room and stood behind him.
“I’m sorry, babe.” She snaked her hands around his broad chest,
with nothing but a wife beater shielding her from his six-pack.

Tension crept through Kalon. “Don’t touch
me.”

Taylor whispered in his ear, “Do you really
mean that?”

Her embrace was not where he wanted to be
right now. He moved away. “Taylor, don’t bring your ass up in here
like you haven’t been blowing me off. You’ve been acting like a
hoe.”

Taylor frowned. “Did you just call me a
hoe?”

“No, I said that’s what you are acting
like.”

Anger flashed in her eyes. “Damn, Kalon, what
do you want from me? I give you space. I thought that’s what you
wanted.”

“I never asked you for space.”

She poured herself a glass of wine and gulped
down the contents. “I don’t have time for this shit. If you want me
to leave, I will.” Grabbing her purse off the couch, she headed
toward the door.

Kalon took her hand as she walked past him.
“Wait, Taylor. I’ve been so horny for you I can’t think
straight.”

Taylor threw her arms around his neck. “I
need you to show me how horny you’ve been for me.”

Kalon took the purse from her hand and threw
it back on the couch. Leading her by the arm, he took her to his
king-size bed. John Legend’s “Tonight (Best You Ever Had)” played
softly from a CD player sitting on the chest of drawers. Kalon sat
on the bed and positioned Taylor to stand in front of him. He
unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it off her shoulders. When he
unbuckled her pants and pulled them down, he slipped her panties
down too, then positioned one of her legs on the bed so he could
rub her spot.

The melodies of John Legend’s voice floated
through the air. “I’m not trying to brag, but I’ll be, the best you
ever had.” As Kalon’s skilled mouth sucked and licked nipples that
were covered by a sheer bra, Taylor reached behind her back and
undid the hooks holding her breasts in placed. Licking his lips,
Kalon took one breast into his mouth. Her head fell back. He stood
up and laid her down on the bed. Flinging off his clothes, he got
in the bed just as she reached out to run her hands down his chest.
He took her hand and put her index finger in his mouth.

Kalon realized that he had given her his
heart. He wasn’t ready to tell her but tonight he could show
her.

“Open your legs,” he told her as he traced
her lips with his tongue. This kiss was different from all the ones
before. He made love to her mouth. Lying on top of her, he pushed
forward to enter her. He went all the way to the hilt, withdrew
slightly, then went in and out as he kissed her. His body moved in
rhythm with his lips. Sweat started to form on both of their
bodies. His pumps became shorter and she started to cry.

Kalon stopped and kissed the tears away. “Are
you okay, baby?”

She couldn’t speak, so she nodded.

“Do you want me to stop?”

She shook her head but the tears continued to
flow.

* * *

Kalon awoke the next morning and reached for
Taylor. Instead of a warm body, he felt a cold sheet. He snapped
his head around to the empty bed.
She left without saying
anything
.

He lay back down and rubbed a pain in his
chest he had felt last night when he was having sex with Taylor and
now this morning. He no longer had to wonder what it was. He had
figured that out when he didn’t see her for a week. He thought back
to what Ephraim had told him that day in his office. “Love is out
there and it’s on the hunt.”

What would his friend say now if he knew love
had finally caught him?

* * *

Taylor had just hung up the phone from Ari.
He had called that morning to ask if they could have breakfast. She
told him about the DVD of him having sex with Maci. He denied that
he knew of any such recording.

“Well, Ari, I’ve thought long and hard … and
I want a divorce.”

He begged with her not to jump to any
conclusions until he found out what the hell was going on.

“Ari. Ari,” she shouted into the phone. “I
don’t want to hear it. I’m going to hang up now. Bye.”

She tossed the phone onto the couch in anger.
She sat down in her media room, thinking about how her life was a
mess. Now there was even an innocent man in this love triangle, a
man who didn’t deserve to be hurt. Kalon didn’t even know she was
married or that she was the daughter of the mayor.

Taylor found herself starting to lie and she
didn’t know what was true anymore. That’s why she left Kalon’s
house before the sun came up. The wall she built around her heart
had started to fall. Could she trust this man? She felt something
for him and she could tell his feelings were getting involved. Lust
wasn’t in his eyes last night. Though he tried so hard to hide it,
she knew the look of love when she saw it.

Stepping out the picture had come across her
mind many times since she started seeing Kalon. Now she was in too
deep and she needed him there to fill the void of loneliness. If
their relationship was going to go any further, she needed to tell
him the truth about who she was and her marital status.

And that wasn’t all. It was time for her to
come clean with her family, and most importantly, with herself.

* * *

Patricia went to such great lengths to get
Kalon to notice her, even recently going so far as to stake out his
loft. The amount of time that he spent up there with Taylor had
Patricia going ballistic. He had used her for one night and tossed
her to the side; not this Taylor person. How could he be interested
in Taylor and not her?

Sitting at her computer, Patricia typed
Taylor Gallagher’s name in the Google search engine.
Nothing.

She drummed her fingers on her desk a few
times and typed in Dynasty Magazine. A few hits popped up on the
screen. Patricia scrolled through until she came upon a site saying
“Mayor’s daughter is the new CEO.” The rest of the words were cut
off. She clicked on the link and there it was in a newspaper
article. “Taylor Briggs, now married to Ari Gallagher, became the
new CEO of Dynasty Magazine. Her father Mayor John Briggs says he
is extremely proud of his daughter’s accomplishments.”

I knew I saw her from somewhere before.

Patricia hummed as she clicked on the
envelope icon above the article, which opened Outlook and copied
the article in the body of a blank email. In the subject line, she
typed “What do you think of this?” Kalon’s personal email address
wasn’t in her contacts, but it wasn’t hard for her to get it. The
Angel Kids website had it. She cut and pasted his address into the
email and hit the send button.

Chapter 17

Taylor greeted the old, fat guard posted at
the security gate outside her parents’ half-million dollar estate
in Naperville, Illinois. This was their vacation home when they
wanted to escape the city living. “Hey, Mr. Balford. How’s it
going?”

“Taylor! It’s been a long time since we’ve
seen you around here.” He opened up the gates and Taylor drove up
to the house, parking behind her brother’s Hummer. The license
plates, engraved in diamonds, said Ice Ty.
When did he get a new
car?
She wondered.

She had finally agreed to come for Sunday
dinner after so many calls from her mother. As soon as she went
through the foyer and opened up the double doors to the dining
room, her mother came up to her, blowing air kisses on each side of
her cheeks. “Hello, Taylor. It’s so good for you to grace us with
your presence.” Tammy Briggs could be very formal and dramatic at
times.

“Hi, Mother.”

“Let’s get this dinner on the road,” Tyler
said. “I have a date.” He was busy texting someone but stopped long
enough to tell Taylor, “Hey, big sis.” She hugged her brother and
reached out for Toni, who was stuffing her mouth with fried
okra.

“Oh, you know I don’t do all that mushy
stuff,” Toni said, waving her hands in the air to shoo Taylor away
like a fly.

“I love you anyway,” Taylor said with a grin.
Everyone took their seats at the table. Taylor and Tyler always sat
next to each other and Toni sat on the other side of the table with
Tammy. The seat at the head of the table was reserved for Mayor
John Briggs.

Servers came out of the kitchen and placed
collard greens, candied yams, macaroni and cheese, turkey and
dressing, and cornbread on the table. Tammy was from Louisiana, and
one thing she stayed true to was her roots of southern cooking.
Mayor Briggs came walking into the room at the same time Tyler
tried to sneak a piece of cornbread. “Put it back now, Ty,” Tammy
said with a firm tone.

“Dang.”

Mayor Briggs took his seat at the table and
looked around. “Where is Ari?”

Tammy followed his lead. “Oh, yes, we can’t
eat without my only son-in-law.”

The moment Taylor dreaded was here. Toni
glanced at her, then the rest of the family all turned to face her
too.

“Why do we have to talk about Ari? Let’s
eat.”

Mayor Briggs stood from his seat. “I asked
you a question, Taylor.”

Taylor looked into the faces of each of her
family members. “Dad, can you please take a seat?”

Mayor Briggs sat back down and watched Taylor
closely.

“Ari is not coming because …” She rubbed
a sweaty palm on her napkin before finishing what she had to say.
“We’re separated. He cheated on me and fathered a child with
another woman and I don’t want to talk about it.”

There, she said it. Ty grabbed Taylor’s hand
and squeezed it for comfort. She looked at him and smiled. Her
little brother would never push her to talk about it until she was
ready; her mom and dad were another story. Taylor turned her head
into the direction of her mom ready to be ridicule. Tammy narrowed
her eyes almost to a slit as she tilted her head to the side.
Taylor could have sworn she muttered something under her
breath.

The base of her father voice drew her out of
her daze. “So I assume you knew about this, Toni, because you’re
the only one who doesn’t look shocked,” the mayor said.

“Yes, I knew.”

He started in on her. “And you didn’t think
it was important enough to tell your father?”

“Wait a minute,” Toni said, throwing her
hands up in the air. “You should be addressing your questions to
Tay, not me.”

Everyone stared in Taylor’s direction once
again.

Taylor’s voice was calm but forceful. “Like I
said, I’m not ready to talk about it. Please respect that.”
Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes. When Mayor Briggs opened
his mouth to speak, Taylor panicked inwardly, thinking he was going
to force her to discuss it further. But he simply said, “Ty, say
grace.”

“Who? Me?” Tyler asked.

“Yes, you boy.”

After Tyler said his ghetto version of grace,
the family ate in silence until Ty started to talk about the trip
he had just taken to Europe. Although it seemed everyone was tuned
into Ty’s story, Taylor could feel the heated stare of her father
burning a hole into the side of her face. With no dinner chatter,
the meal didn’t last long. In no time, Tammy was calling the
servers out to let them know everyone was finished and the table
could be cleared.

All in all, Taylor was glad she had survived
the evening without having to divulge her entire story to them.
They knew the important part. The rest she would sort out on her
own.

Kalon had called her phone a few times while
she was at dinner. She figured he wanted to talk about why she left
so abruptly the other day. He normally never called back-to-back,
but today he was giving her ringtone a workout. She switched her
phone to vibrate and then a text message came in.

“I need to see you now.”

The family had gathered outside on the golf
course her father had built a few years ago. They would usually
take turns hitting a few balls around the property but today Taylor
didn’t feel like participating. In the pit of her stomach, she had
a bad feeling that something wasn’t right from the tone of the text
she had just read. She texted back, “Having dinner with my parents,
I’ll call you later.”

On the golf course, Tyler had skipped out on
the last game, reminding everyone that he had a date. Toni and
Tammy left much earlier, in the middle of the first round, to have
tea on the sun porch. Not seeing anyone on the golf course, Taylor
went out to hit a few balls—and to be alone. To get away and think,
she drove the golf cart around the grounds for about two hours,
until she was exhausted.

Afterward, she pulled her phone out of her
pocket. Kalon had answered her last text. “Are you having dinner
with your father Mayor John Briggs?”